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A27
FRIDAY,
SEPTEMBER 12,
2014
• Twitter: @GuardianTT • Web: guardian.co.tt
PRETORIA---The judge in Oscar
Pistorius trial yesterday ruled out
a murder conviction for the dou-
ble-amputee Olympian in the shoot-
ing death of his girlfriend, but said
he was negligent, raising the pos-
sibility he ll be convicted of culpable
homicide.
The verdict in the case that has
riveted much of South Africa and the
world is expected today when Judge
Thokozile Masipa reconvenes the
judgment phase, climaxing the trial
that began in March.
If Pistorius is acquitted of murder,
he could still be sent to jail for a max-
imum of 15 years if convicted of cul-
pable homicide, which is the killing
of someone through reckless or neg-
ligent behaviour, although five years
in prison is a guideline when a firearm
is used.
The red-robed Masipa, sitting in
the dais and looking down at Pistorius
and the packed courtroom, said she
felt Pistorius acted negligently when
he fired four times through a toilet
door in his home in the pre-dawn
hours of Valentine s Day last year. In
a moment of high-drama, Masipa
then stopped reading out her verdict
in the six-month-long trial and
adjourned until today.
Because there is no trial by jury in
South Africa, Masipa is expected to
explain exactly why she and her two
legal aides came to the decision they
have before the judge issues the ver-
dict.
"I am of the view that the accused
acted too hastily and with excessive
force," Masipa said of Pistorius
actions on the fatal night.
She said the prosecution had not
proven beyond a reasonable doubt
that Pistorius committed premedi-
tated murder. She also ruled out a
lesser murder charge. As she spoke,
Pistorius began sobbing quietly on
the wooden bench, his shoulders
shaking.
Murder is an illegal, intentional
killing. A premeditated, or planned,
murder would carry a heavier sen-
tence in the event of a conviction.
The world-famous athlete has
acknowledged firing the shots through
the toilet door in his home, hitting
Steenkamp in the head, arm and hip
area with hollow-point bullets from
his 9 mm pistol. He said he mistook
her for an intruder and denied mur-
der, but the judge said Pistorius still
could have taken other action, like
calling the police or security at his
housing estate.
"Did the accused fail to take steps
he should have taken? Yes," Masipa
said.
"He failed to take any steps to avoid
the death."
The prosecution alleged that the
athlete intentionally killed his girl-
friend, a model and budding reality
TV star, after a loud nighttime argu-
ment heard by neighbours. Masipa
said there were "just not enough
facts" to support the finding of pre-
meditated murder or the lesser mur-
der without pre-planning.
"The accused cannot be found
guilty of murder," the judge said.
At the start of the judgment hear-
ing, Masipa told Pistorius, 27, that
he should remain seated on the bench
while she read her findings out and
until she asked him to stand for the
verdict.
In her hours-long assessment of
witness evidence, she called Pistorius
a "very poor witness" who had lost
his composure on the stand and was
at times "evasive." But Masipa
emphasised that did not mean he
was guilty of murder.
The 66-year-old judge also cast
doubt on witness accounts of hearing
a woman s screams, a key part of the
prosecution s case. The defence had
argued that it was Pistorius who was
screaming in a high-pitched voice
after discovering he had fatally shot
Steenkamp.
Masipa also cited testimony of an
acoustics expert called by the defence,
saying it cast "serious doubt" on
whether witnesses who were hun-
dreds of metres away in their homes---
as some state witnesses were---could
have differentiated between the
screams of a man or a woman.
Masipa also said she was disre-
garding text messages between
Steenkamp and Pistorius that had
been entered as evidence. Prosecutors
had submitted text messages that
showed tension between them while
the defence submitted messages that
indicated mutual affection. That evi-
dence, the judge said, doesn t prove
anything.
"Normal relationships are dynamic
and unpredictable most of the time,
while human beings are fickle," she
said.
Pistorius faced 25 years to life in
prison if convicted of premeditated
murder. He also faced a minimum of
15 years in jail if found guilty of murder
without pre-planning.
Pistorius is charged with murder,
two counts of unlawfully firing a gun
in a public place in unrelated incidents
and one count of illegal possession
of ammunition. (AP)
Pistorius gets a break ahead of trial verdict
Judge rules out murder
WASHINGTON---Republicans and
Democrats in Congress yesterday
voiced strong pre-election support
for President Barack Obama s call
for new authority to combat
Islamic State militants in the heart
of the Middle East.
"Over the next week, following
a series of briefings, Congress will
work with the administration to
ensure that our forces have the
resources they need to carry out
these missions," said Senate Repub-
lican Leader Mitch McConnell.
Democratic Majority Leader Harry
Reid predicted Congress would
swing behind the president s request,
"not the least of which is the author-
ity to equip and train Syrian troops
to fight these...evil terrorists."
Reid and McConnell spoke yes-
terday after Obama s nationally tel-
evised speech Wednesday, and as
House Republicans appeared to be
grudgingly coalescing around a vote
to support the president s request.
"We do not want to go home
without voting on some measure
that goes toward destroying and
defeating ISIS wherever it exists,"
said Republican Michael McCaul,
a Republican, referring to the mil-
itants.
Congress is in a brief two-week
pre-November election session,
and the president s request is an
unexpected addition to what had
until recently seemed a period
devoted to domestic issues such as
extending government funding
beyond the end of the current
budget year.
Public sentiment also appears to
be shifting, with polls showing
Americans more supportive of mil-
itary action than they were in the
immediate aftermath of the long,
deadly wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq. (AP)
Obama's ISIS combat request draws support
BEIRUT---Al-Qaeda-linked Syrian
rebels yesterday released all 45
Fijian peacekeepers they had held
captive for two weeks, the United
Nations said, bringing an end to a
crisis that had pulled the UN
monitoring force into the chaos of
Syria's civil war.
Fighters from the Nusra Front
captured the Fijian troops late last
month in the Golan Heights, where
a 1,200-strong UN force patrols the
disputed buffer zone between Syria
and Israel. The area along the
frontier has been engulfed in heavy
clashes since then between the
rebels and the Syrian military.
The Fijians were taken hostage
the same day that nearly 80 Filipino
peacekeepers were surrounded and
trapped by Syrian opposition
fighters. The crisis raised questions
about the future of the UN Golan
mission as participating nations
threatened to pull their troops out
because of the escalating violence.
Two weeks to the day after the
Fijians were abducted, UN Deputy
Spokesman Farhan Haq said
yesterday that they had been freed.
He said they were released at the
Quneitra crossing point in the
Syrian-controlled part of the Golan
Heights. (AP)
Syrian rebels free 45 peacekeepers
Oscar Pistorius
cries in the
dock in
Pretoria, South
Africa,
yesterday, as
Judge
Thokozile
Masipa reads
notes as she
delivers her
verdict in his
murder trial.
The judge will
deliver her
final verdict
today. AP
PHOTO
Judge
Thokozile
Masipa